Two boys stolen from their Czech parents are the reason. Most compatriots including your humble correspondent endorse an invasion of the special units of the Czech army that would kill the members of "Barnevernet" (which translates as "The Pedophiles" to Greek and the institution is the Norwegian counterpart of Lebensborn in Germany up to 1945), a child kidnapping ring that operates legally at many places of Norway, and bring the boys back to their homeland.

In 2011, Mrs Eva Michaláková and her (now former, much older) husband Joseph Michalák who is deaf-mute (due to an explosion in the wake of the 1968 Warsaw Pact occupation) lived in a Norwegian village; all these 4 people are Czech citizens. A police came to their house claiming that some folks in the kindergarten decided that one of the boys must have been sexually abused because of the color of his stool. This accusation was shown to be invalid by tests in the hospital as well as additional police experts but this fact has apparently had no effect on the following events.

Barnevernet, "The Bureau for the Protection of Children", was already in charge of the boys and it was enough for them to invent another accusation. The mother sometimes lightly slapped the boys' buttocks – in the same way as 95 percent of Czech mothers do – but it's apparently never legal to slap your child in Norway. And the father sometimes screamed at the boys – which is not too surprising because he was deaf-mute.

The boys, David (born 2008) and Denis (born 2005), passed the internal tests of Barnevernet: they are good Nordic race, blonde kids (and born in Norway, but you know, within fully Czech-papered families). The child kidnapping ring was already decided to keep the children and sell them for adoption to some Norwegian foster parents. To make things worse, it separated both boys into two different Norwegian families. Regardless of the Czech parents' hypothetical wrongdoings in the past, this very fact seems indefensible to most Czechs who follow the story.

At some point, the Czech father surrendered. The mother separated from the father, in order to increase her odds that the children may be returned. All the Czech authorities agreed that the children shouldn't be kept in Norway but no one has been assertive enough and/or able to change the situation so far and the special units of the Czech army haven't been sent to Norway as of today.

Mr Petr Mach (Party of Free Citizens), a member of the EU Parliament whom I know in person and whom I voted for during the EU elections, came to Norway today (along with Mr Tomáš Zdechovský, Christian and Democratic Union, another EU lawmaker). No progress. More precisely, no positive progress. MEP Mach summarized his negotiations as follows:

Today's interactions with Barnevernet were literally desperate: the officials were visibly enjoying their power over an "ordinary" person.

Afterwards, I, Mrs Michaláková, and her female lawyer went to talk to the local police which was a much more constructive meeting. The police have confirmed that they have investigated the matter, didn't find any violation of the law in the family, and postponed the case. They have even stated that they believed that Mrs Michaláková will be able to win her children back. Let's keep on fighting: the Czech children must return to the Czech family!

Instead, the Norwegian courts confirmed that the child kidnapping ring operates above the law and it has the right to do whatever it wants with the children. The mother is "obliged" to give the boys' passports to the ring. She is only allowed to see the children twice a year for 15 minutes, she is not allowed to hug them, she mustn't take pictures. And the boys must be germanized (learn Norwegian only), in order to get rid of their Slavic contamination (this detail is no kidding, either! The mother is never allowed to speak Czech to the boys).

They use different words for some of these things but the paragraphs above are unfortunately facts.

I just find this development of the story unbelievable at so many levels. You know, it's totally possible that to "never slap a child" may look like a good principle for some folks or nations, and maybe even I could see it as a good rule. But it's simply a fact that most Czech parents disagree that this should be a dogma and it is perfectly OK for Czech mothers to slap their sons. It's a part of our culture that hasn't led to any catastrophe yet.

As soon as it was shown that no sexual abuse has taken place, all the procedures leading to the mess we are witnessing today should have been stopped and reverted. It's shocking that they continued. I can't agree with the idea that there is the rule of law in Norway if some authorities "above the law" are capable of stealing children from their parents because of reasons that are known to be bogus.

They are bogus according to all the information we can get anywhere. But even if they were not bogus, and even if the children were abused – this is a thought experiment – I would find it important that the Czech children have done nothing wrong and the Norwegian authorities obviously have no right to prevent them from returning to their homeland. Even if one accepted the fascist-Orwellian assumption of Barnavernet that the children belong to the state and not to the parents, it is the Czech state, and not the Norwegian state, whom the boys belong.

Even if something were wrong about both parents, it seems obvious to me that other relatives have the right to reunite with the children and because the children are less than 15 years old, it should be expected that such decisions are made by these adult relatives and not the children themselves.

So wherever I look, I must say: incredible, stunning, shocking. The main pathology that allowed these events to take place in Norway is apparently the "social state" that has conquered Norway and make such brutal violations of justice, human rights, and common sense possible. Moreover, this "social state" has been built around some "puritan" traditions of Norway. This tradition is combined with the nation's feeling that it's right to educate children as "tough Hitlerjugend" in the wild environments around fjords, away from their parents.

There are some reports that Barnevernet is being used rather routinely to steal children from other countries – including Poland (in 2011, a Polish detective was able to save a child stolen by the Norwegian bureau) and Russia (plus maybe children of up to three more Czech mothers, cases that may be less clear than this one), perhaps the Baltic States, and India (that managed to win a similar conflict) – and I do think that it is unacceptable and if negotiations between the governments don't lead anywhere, I would favor a military operation of the countries of their subsets to recover the kidnapped children. I know that the Russian authorities have lots of other problems but if they have faced similar problems, I beg: please invade. ;-)

You may check that comments of Czech Internet users (EN) saying that this is incredibly disgusting and the separation of the two boys should be enough to kill the organization get 110 helpful votes and 0 negative votes, and there are lots of similarly supported clear opinions in the debate.

I recommend you not to visit Norway along with your children. It is too risky, it ceased to be a safe country for the tourists.

The parents etc. in this video could have done something wrong – but no evidence that Mrs Michálková did anything wrong is available in her case.

The story of Ms Michaláková and her kids is special because of the international dimension of the scandal. But Barnevernet is kidnapping Norwegian children on a daily basis – it mostly looks like the video above. Slapping kids in their face may be controversial but what I see in the video above is Gestapo-like cruelty and its perpetrators deserve to be hung.

The Angola abduction

I must mention one related story that I followed as a 10-year-old kid. In 1983, 66 Czechoslovak citizens (mix: men, women, kids) were abducted in Angola by Unita. They were kept for a year and forced to walk 2 thousand miles. As an adult, I have never returned to that story to review it from the well-informed, adult, democratic viewpoint. So only now I see that Unita, the kidnappers, was originally a Maoist organization that was later paid by the U.S. nicely so they turned from a Maoist group to a social democratic and then center-right pro-capitalist group.

Wow.

I must say that this already contains some of the craziness of the recent U.S. interventions into assorted countries of the world. The U.S. wanted to fight "communism" and they did so by teaming up with Maoists – who were obviously much more radical communists than anyone on the Czechoslovak territory – to kidnap 66 average Czechoslovak citizens. Perhaps, with some money, one can see that those Unita Maoists are nice, pro-capitalism people. Well, at least, it "worked" so that Unita could have been bought. It never worked in the recent years and the Islamist savages remained Islamist savages after swallowing billions of the U.S. money, and the ISIS is just the most well-known example of a Unita-like organization whose "transformation by the money" didn't work as well as it did for Unita.

snail feedback (27)
:

reader
Gordon
said...

As a first step, the Czech govt should call in the Norwegian ambassador for a dressing down and recall its own ambassador from Norway. Perhaps the Czech govt should have sentKlaus to Norway to "negotiate".

Dear Gordon, the negotiations through both ambassadors are being constantly done, with no results. The degree of public and official anger in Czechia surely reached the level to recall our ambassador but recalling of the ambassador is simply not being discussed at this moment, as far as I can see.

This is outrageous. I had already crossed the UK off my list as too dangerous to visit, and now I'll have to add Norway. The proper response for the Norwegians would have been to tell the family "If you don't want to live by our standards, then please go elsewhere." In fact there are a lot of people who should be told that.

I just thought about this job, too! When I searched about his name and the name of the Bureau Protecting Children, I only found pages claiming that the Bureau should have taken him away from his mother as well, and that would have surely prevented the murders.

This is a case from a few years back. The parents of an intelligent boy asked for more advanced problems, so the boy would not have to be bored at school. The municipal government had the parents reported to "barnevernet". However, the local people in barnevernet were actually good, and said that everything was fine with the kid and the parents - so nothing happened. But - this illustrates that Barnevernet can be used as an oppression: "Dont say anything, or we will report you to barnevernet". http://www.tv2.no/a/5436552

Welcome to 2015 Reality. Many stories like this happen in all "civilized" western societies. Without any real cause it is decided that children only belong to mother (majority of cases),or to father (equally bad), or, as here, to the state. Whichever injustice was done, there is no return.

"Strange" fact: it hardly ever is done to Muslim families, one might think that some problems are bigger there. Though social workers are mean by the arrogance of knowing-it-all, they do not dear to go there; they pick the easy cases with weak parents.

I'm sorry to say, but something is totally wrong with this story. As a Norwegian with wery good insight into "Barnevernet" and the laws that regulate it, this story cannot be true in the way it's told here. Barnevernet cannot and are not allowed to operate on their own. They are a part of the local community and have to follow Norwegian law, and all decisions regarding removing a child from it's parents is taken by a judge in a civil court, not by Barnevernet. Barnevernets job is to help parents to take care of their children in a proper way. In a very few cases they can remove children temporary if the child is suffering.

Barnevernets primary job is to help children to achieve what is best for them, and normally that is to live with their parents with the right not to be exposed to violence or sexual abusement.

But there is one thing one have to understand, and that is that any kind of violence against a child is forbidden by law in Norway. Or more exactly; A child has the right not to be beaten or abused in any way. And pople who cannot follow Norwegian law are in trouble whatever excuses they come up with.

If this is the case, Barnevernets job is to help both parties. One is to protect the child, the other is to help parents to understand and follow Norwegian law. The main focus is what is best for the child.

In any case, Barnevernet are forced to follow Norwegian law also, in their case it's called "Barnevernloven". This law regulates everything. If they don't follow that law, they are doing something illigal. Norway is regulated by law, not by individuals.

You can read Barnevernloven here: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=no&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Flovdata.no%2Fdokument%2FNL%2Flov%2F1992-07-17-100%3Fq%3Dbarnevernloven&edit-text=

As a Norwegian, it's sad to read this story. I am myself very engaged in all cases that involve Barnevernet, and especially in those that goes wrong. I have readen this story, I have readen the comments, and wish I could provide some insight and help in this case. Norway is a civilised country, but you can find jerks there as you do everywhere else. The thing is to know how the system works and how to outmanoeuvre the jerks. Barnevernet is not outside the law, it's totally regulated by law and it's always a civil judge in a civil court that decide everything. Barnevernet only has the right to temporary take children away from their parents, and only to protect them from violence and abuse. Of course they don't kidnap or sell children. If you have any questions please contact me and I will gladly provide correct information about how Barnevernet operates in Norway.

Dear Maritza, welcome here. I've heard this thing - "it cannot be true" - from the Norwegian ambassador, too. The only problem is that none of them - and you are no exception - has ever found any inaccuracy and didn't say what is the truth in this picture.

So I obviously can't operate with it. (Moreover, it seems pretty clear that none of the people - like you - who say that the truth "must" be different are aware of any such "different truth", because of their very words that the truth is kept secret from non-judges and non-participants of the case.) I can only see what I see, and what I see is that children were stolen from their parents based on fraudulent evidence and there is no evidence that could replace it.

Is it true that 11,000 children in Norway are taken from their parents every year? It's 1/5 of the children in the nation, isn't it? Don't you think it's excessive? Don't you think that something is deeply wrong about your laws and they should be changed? Don't you think that it's wrong - regardless of what the parents did - that the brothers are separated from each other?

Can't you guess that I will be disgusted by claims like "this law protects both the rights of children and parents" as nothing else than a completely dishonest propaganda?

And doesn't Norway follow Jus Sanguinis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_nationality_law

just like the Czech Republic which means that if the boys belong to any state, it's clearly the Czech Republic and not Norway?

Hi Shannon. I know more about Barnevernet that I want to tell in public and that's why I'm above average engaged in the subject. The law is equal for everybody and we have some big challenges in a multicultural society. What is not equal around the country is public individuals approach and judgements. They sometimes are "the jerks" in the system. But to put it simple; People who understand Norwegian law and follow the law will never run into problems. Barnevernet is an institution with a mandate to protect children from violence and abuse, and to assist parents who struggle to be able to take care of their children in a proper way.

Barnevernet never "take children". It's always a judge who takes the decission. Beacuse of the cost, both regarding money for the local town / community and emotional cost for everyone involved, Barnevernet shall do all they can to avoid taking children away from their parents or relatives. Children SHALL stay with their parents if possible.

Dear Maritza, you display an uncritical respect towards the state apparatus of the same kind our ancestors would be expected to show during the Nazi occupation.

Some people may expect me to quote communism as the analogy except that I don't remember anything comparable during the years of late communism that I remember.

The claim that "the law is equal for everybody" is completely ludicrous in a setup where some people - in this case, the officials in Barnevernet - are self-evidently above the law and above everyone else.

You say that it is always the judge who takes the decision to take the children away. Except that we have been explained in quite some detail what the courts actually can and cannot do. The courts may only decide against Barnevernet if Barnevernet violates its own regulation according to its own opinion.

The broader point is that your claims what the role of different institutions are doing seem to be plain lies. It is clearly Barnevernet, and not the courts, who invented the idea for the boys to be adopted by someone else. If you disagree, I demand clear evidence.

Your original claim that I don't know something important about this scandal - something that Barnevernet does know - seems very unlikely to me.

You know, Petr Mach is "my" member of the European Parliament. I know him in person and yesterday, he went to Norway and spent about 3 hours by discussions with no one else than Barnevernet about this topic.

I am pretty sure that if there were any important information (about the abuse etc.) that we're not generally aware of, he would have been told about it, and because I know he is honest, he would tell us about it, too.

No evidence like that emerged. And his interactions with the Norwegian police made it clear that police is not aware of any wrongdoing by Mrs Michaláková and it does think that the children should be returned to their mother.

So I am pretty confident that my knowledge about all this stuff is vastly more accurate and detailed than yours and the only thing you are "better" at is your desire to defend the indefensible, the fascist anti-family policies in your country.

I do not know this case in details, but at least I can provide some figures and hopefully clear up some misunderstandings. Some statistics from Norway:"As per December 31, 2010, there were nearly 7000 children with care measures in Norway. 90 percent of these children lived in foster homes, while the remaining stayed at institutions (8 percent) or emergency (2 percent)."

As you can see we have many children reported and beeing assisted by Barnevernet every year, but very few are taken away from their parents/home. In most cases children are taken away because their mother is drug-addicted.

I hope this gives a better and broader picture about Barnevernet in Norway.

I am quite disappointed by Luboss one-sided, prejudiced and unnecessarily denunciative article. I have always appreciated his sense for unbiased, fair, thus sometimes nonconforming, reflection of social events. A true scientific and logical approach very much needed. Therefore I dont follow his desicion to defend a party supported only by tabloid media seeking profit, populistic politicians and a mother not telling whole truth. I seriously do not believe that Norwegian people would allow any institution to literally steal their or other peoples children for no obvious reasons. Such behavior would definitely cause a huge social uprising and legal changes. There are so many weak points in the mother's story that a rational person can't make logical conclusions without hearing the other side. I wish Czech people would show more respect to other nation's legal system same as we require the same in our country (im Czech).

Luboš, I do not defend the system and from time to time things goes wrong as always when humans are involved, and in particular when strong emotions dominate. And in many cases a bad lawyer is all it takes to initiate what may have been i minor issue, into an unintended and much bigger case. Norway is not a paradise for everyone and the laws are not perfect. And the less resources one have, the bigger is is the potential to loose against bureaucrats and the "system". Thats actually why I am engaged in the interest of the weak part in in cases like this one. But to have a common ground to stand on, it must at least be based on facts and not imaginations.

Could you please mention at least one weak point of her presentation? I assure you that otherwise, saying these things about Mrs Michaláková is a libel and I would 100% cooperate with those who would defend her name against you or others.

"Respect" towards another nation's legal system plays no role here because the kids shouldn't have become subjects of the Norwegian legal system at all. They haven't done anything wrong and they are 100% Czech citizens, by the passport and by the principle "jus sanguinis" (children inherit citizenship from parents) that both Norway and Czechia respect.